But she didn’t bring his attention to it.
She kept talking.
“I think it’s also important for you to know that I suspect that wasn’t easy to share but, honey, I’m so glad you did because until I sat there listening to you, I hadn’t worked all this out in my head. His issues that he made mine were still shaping who I was becoming, how I was living my life and who I thought I was. You’ve just made me realize I need to let that go. It was him. Everyone said it but it really was just him and I had nothing to do with it so I also have to thank you for leading me to that because it feels flipping awesome to finally let that go.”
“Angie,” he whispered.
She had it back.
And she rejoiced.
But she didn’t let it show except to share, “I like what we have too, Branch, and I don’t want it to end so please don’t walk out the door. Because, although I promised to rock your world tonight, I’ve since decided I’m going to take my time doing that so I’m just going to sway it a little bit and let you enjoy the anticipation until I’m ready to roll.”
That got her his beautiful eye flash, much closer to the surface, and she really, really wanted to reward that by kissing him.
But he might not want that so that was no reward.
She’d have to give him the reward he’d want.
She lifted her other hand to his jaw, murmuring, “Thank you again, baby.”
“You’re thanking me for beating the shit out of your ex-boyfriend.”
She shook her head slightly.
“I’m thanking you for not keeping from me the fact you did. I’m thanking you for, perhaps unintentionally, but it still happened, making me look at what happened from a different perspective. One that was meaningful. A way to look at it that I needed. I’m thanking you for being honest and letting me know who I have in my bed so I can make the decision if I wish him to remain there, something I can imagine you have some sense is important to me.”
She stroked his cheekbones with both hands and kept speaking.
“If you think in future I’ll have issues about the fact you’ve got no regrets for carrying out the kind of lesson you taught Kevin, that you’re that man, then please, don’t worry, Branch. In our short time together, you’ve shown me the kind of man you are in many ways, nothing hidden. You did what you did. You had reason. You shared with me those reasons. And though I might not completely agree with it, you have no regrets and it’s not my place to give you any because I also don’t completely disagree with it. I’ve only known you three days and I’m aware there’s a lot of you I’ll never get. But I like what I have, maybe especially what you gave me tonight, and I’m not just talking about the enchiladas, which were superb. So I’m good, handsome.”
His eyes dropped to her mouth, he seemed to sway toward her, she held her breath as a curl fluttered in her belly, but his eyes cut back to hers and he growled, “I need you to sway my world right about now, Angie.”
In his safe place.
Where he could be who he was and show it without holding anything back (or, at least, without holding everything back).
But he’d called her Angie.
And that worked for her.
“Okay, baby,” she whispered, “I’ll sway your world.”
His eyes dropped again to her lips but only briefly before they returned to hers.
It was time to take him to his safe place.
“I’m hoping I’ve taught you that good things come to those who wait so we’ll see how well you can wait. I want you to turn off the TV. Then I want you naked, Branch, standing by my side of the couch. I feel like reading and having a few glasses of wine tonight, handsome. But I’m sure there’ll be the occasion where I’ll also want to look at that lovely cock of yours, touch it, kiss it, suck it, your balls too. So position for me, legs slightly apart, so I can also get to your ass if I want to, hands linked behind your head. I want you hard when I return. I’m going to clear up the kitchen now, but before I go, I need to know, is all that understood?”
She knew it was by the heat he wasn’t quite hiding building in his eyes.
But he answered anyway, “Yes, ma’am.”
She gave him a smile.
She wanted to give him something else. At least a small peck on the lips.
Instead, she let him go and moved back, ordering, “Please don’t delay, Branch. I’ll be watching you preparing for me from the kitchen.”
She got out of the couch and so did he.
She went to the kitchen and tidied.
She also watched.
And she let her mind filter over what had just happened.
You skipped down them this morning … Don’t do that again.
He cared.
He cared about her.
He cared she was safe. He cared she looked out for herself. He cared enough not just to chat with her about skipping down the stairs but that and the alarm, locks, motion sensor lights … and not hiding who he was. Making sure she knew, perhaps not in a thorough way where he’d laid his heart bare and shared every second of his history, but he still gave her what she needed to understand who she’d let in her bed.
After Kevin, it was a gift.
Branch being Branch, Evangeline knew just how precious that gift was.
And it gave her hope. Much more than his texting her after he’d done as she’d instructed. Much more than him showing at her house to make dinner and enduring his discomfort at being in a situation he found awkward so he could be with her.
Yes, much more.
Much, much more.
She was terrified she was all kinds of stupid to feel it.
But even if she put all she had into it, she couldn’t stop it.
* * *
Later that night, after arming the alarm (she’d had to look up the code, that was how long it had been since she’d used it), Evangeline walked up the steps, turned at the landing, and her eyes hit Branch as she’d left him.
Tied down, hips on his bolster, as she’d had him last night and as she’d left him half an hour ago.
Her clit quivered, her nipples hardened and her lips curled in a smile as she approached the bed, seeing his beautiful cock hard and resting against the cotton, his balls drawn up tight, and some lovely, fading pink marks on his ass and thighs where her switch had bitten into him that morning.
She wasn’t surprised that even with the time she’d been away he was still hard. From the time she went to the couch with her book and a refreshed glass of wine, to the time she tied him to the bed, he’d stood beside her, hands linked behind his head, and she’d read (not really taking anything in because she had a tall, handsome man with a big, beautiful, hard cock standing beside her) and sipped her wine.
And played.
It wasn’t relentless.
It was a delicious realization that he was also the kind of sub who liked that kind of play because the longer it lasted, the harder he got, the bigger reaction she’d get when she eventually touched him, to the point the last several times he couldn’t hold back his groans.
And right then, as sheer the perfection was that he was, she approached the bed carrying the things that would complete that to finish preparing him so they could go to sleep.
She touched a hand to the back of his ankle and her grin got bigger when she saw the bunched muscles of his calf and the sinews at the back of his thigh clench.
A light touch and he was reacting like that.
Her big boy was ready for her to get serious.
Climbing into bed on her knees, she ran her hand up his calf, his thigh, to his hip and she set aside what she’d brought with her.
“I want a day, Branch,” she whispered, lighting her hand on the back of his other knee and gliding it up his thigh, “where I tie you down like this for me and you stay positioned for me all day. Whenever I fancy, I can come up, play with your balls, stroke your cock, spank you, eat you, fill your ass, fuck it.”
She planted both hands in his ass and massaged the cheeks deep with her thumbs, hearing his grunt of pleasured pain as she pressed into the strips from his switch, and feeling that noise in her pussy.
“Maybe harnessed.” She slid one hand down and stroked his sac and watched his ass jump at the touch.
Yes.